Power of the pen: First-graders’ letters prompt action from county, Lovingood on closed library

Thursday

Apr 13, 2017 at 12:01 AMApr 13, 2017 at 10:41 PM

Matthew Cabe Staff Writer @DP_MatthewCabe

APPLE VALLEY — A two-day event that brought a mobile library and a San Bernardino County supervisor to Phoenix Academy this week was spurred by letters from first-graders asking about the closed Newton T. Bass Apple Valley Branch Library.

The letters prompted action from their recipient, 1st District Supervisor Robert Lovingood, who expressed concern in 2015 about a “communication gap” among county staff as library updates in the Daily Press worked to “catch the Supervisor and staff by surprise,” emails obtained in a California Public Records Act request revealed.

In addition to bringing the event, which offered all Phoenix Academy students the opportunity to open library accounts, the students’ letters — coupled with an initial email sent to Lovingood by their teacher — shed light on the effects the nearly two-year closure has had on at least one school in the community.

“I was reading a book about a library and one of my students raised her hand and asked, ‘What is a library?’ My mouth dropped and I felt so sad,” Carter wrote. “So I asked the rest of my class if they knew what a library was and to my surprise they did not.”

Carter explained the functions of libraries to her students and, later, told them about the email to Lovingood, which asked when the library would reopen.

“I wrote my email first, and I kind of felt like — you know, Lovingood didn’t even write me back. His secretary did,” Carter told the Daily Press on Wednesday.

The Jan. 12 response actually came from Lovingood’s Constituent Services Director Susan Drake, who informed Carter the county “has an estimated timeline to complete the Library in April 2018.”

“I told (the students) it would take another year to fix the library,” Carter continued, “so I asked them if they wanted to write (to Lovingood) about the library.”

The first-graders responded enthusiastically and more than 20 letters were sent to the supervisor a few weeks later.

Questions asked in those letters included, “Why is it taking so long to fix the Apple Valley Library?”, “Can you get the Apple Valley library fixed faster?” and “Why can’t you fix our Apple Valley Library in a jiffy?”

The event

County library staff arrived at Phoenix Academy early Tuesday morning, according to Apple Valley Unified School District spokesperson Kristin Hernandez, who said classes rotated through the mobile library wherein “they each heard a story and had the opportunity to check out books.”

When Lovingood arrived, he met with Carter’s class, a visit she appreciated.

“He was real open,” she said. “He talked to the kids and was very friendly. The kids had questions. They asked him ... the same questions they had in their letters. He talked about safety ... and that sometimes it takes longer to go through the various channels to get the library back open.”

Afterward, Lovingood said the county thought the students’ letters warranted acknowledgement, which resulted in the event that culminated with an educational magic show on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, San Bernardino County Library Regional Manager Michael Jimenez said the letters also marked a notable first for the county library system.

“This was the first time the mobile library has been brought to a school,” Jimenez told the Daily Press.

Carter later addressed that maiden voyage, as it were, stating, “Maybe it will start something and they’ll do this at other schools. That would be awesome.”

The future

The Newton T. Bass branch library was closed indefinitely on April 18, 2015, following initial statements from the county that indicated a much shorter closure.

During Tuesday’s Apple Valley Town Council meeting, County Librarian Leonard Hernandez said a full-scale repair of the library’s roof and structural support system — damaged by “strong prevailing winds” — will begin April 17.

According to Hernandez, construction is expected to take 15 months, three months longer than what Lovingood’s staff reported in a statement on March 10, a previous Daily Press report shows.

The library will have been closed three years at that point, and will likely incur additional costs related to both the closure and reconstruction that currently total more than $6 million.

Lovingood said engineering, liability and potential litigation issues “greatly slowed progress” on a re-opening. As such, a temporary library was set up in April 2016.

Carter described the temporary library as a positive step, but — in her email — explained to Lovingood what a “permanent beautiful town library” means to her students.

“At this time, our school library does not provide books for our first grade level students and below,” she wrote. “We have been told that this is due to funding. Due to these circumstances, they are unable to visit the school library. Without a town library, my first graders are missing out on getting an early adventure and wide variety of exposure to the many books and stories that could open their minds to new and wondrous worlds.”

Following the event her students initiated, Carter said she was hopeful for the future, but expressed a yearning for the past.

“We used to do a field trip at the beginning of the year,” she said. “They had a tour of the library and a scavenger hunt to learn about the library and what (it) actually had to offer, as far as not just checking out books. All the programs. Because it’s so close to our school it made a really nice field trip. And it's a great place where the kids in this area can utilize it.

“If you catch (kids) at that age and give them that love for reading, it’s so important. And the library offers that … and just makes it exciting. It’s so important for little kids. And it’s free.”

Matthew Cabe can be reached at MCabe@VVDailyPress.com or at 760-951-6254. Follow him on Twitter @DP_MatthewCabe.